What is the difference between Reiki and energy healing

The most essential difference is actually the affiliation - Reiki is a subdivision of the energy healing system, and the two are never equivalent concepts.

I also got confused when I first came into contact with the healing circle. When I first met a healer I knew well for dinner, I opened my mouth and asked, "Do you usually do Reiki or energy healing?" The other person was very amused. They said that my question was equivalent to asking "Do you like Kung Pao chicken or Sichuan food?" I clearly confused the broad category with the specific branches.

Perhaps many friends who are new to the field of mind, body and spirit will have this misunderstanding. After all, these two words always appear together, and they are even compared in the same dimension in many publicity. Energy healing in a broad sense is actually a very big basket. All healing methods are based on the logic that "in addition to the visible physical body, living organisms also have invisible subtle energy fields. Adjusting the imbalance of the energy field can reversely improve the physical and mental state." , can all be classified into this category, ranging from the warmth that a friend unconsciously transmits when you massage your temples when you have a headache, to the conditioning done by professional healers using singing bowls, crystals, flower essences and even sounds. They all fall into the category of energy healing in essence. However, the boundaries of this concept have not been completely unified until now. Some academic circles believe that the so-called "subtle energy" is actually the running state of qi and blood in traditional Chinese medicine and the sum of cell bioelectricity observed in modern medicine. Some researchers also believe that this is the existence of the "etheric body" level that has not been confirmed by existing detection methods. There are arguments on both sides, and there is no conclusion yet.

Reiki is one of the branches in this large category with the clearest rules and the most complete inheritance system. It was first founded by Usui Onao in Japan in 1922. The biggest difference from other energy healing methods is that it has very strict inheritance requirements - learners must be "initiated" by teachers who have obtained inheritance qualifications to open up the connection channel between the individual and the so-called "cosmic life energy". A while ago, when I was doing Reiki conditioning for a friend who suffered from allergic rhinitis during the change of seasons, I placed my hands on her eyebrows, around her nose, chest and back of her neck according to the standard position. I didn't have to deliberately "exercise" the whole process. As long as I remained relaxed, the energy would flow to the parts needed by the patient along the channels opened by previous enlightenment. This is completely different from the logic that when I perform singing bowl therapy, I have to choose a bowl that corresponds to the chakra frequency in advance and find a suitable tapping position.

Of course, there are many senior practitioners who do not recognize this subordination. After all, the development of Reiki has spawned more than a dozen branches such as Karuna Reiki and Shambhala Reiki. The audience covers hundreds of countries around the world. The maturity of the system is very high. Many people will directly discuss it and generalized energy healing in the same dimension. Some private practitioners even call all manual energy conditioning that does not require the use of tools Reiki. These cognitive deviations are actually caused by the different schools that everyone is exposed to, and there is no absolute right or wrong.

In fact, for ordinary users, there is no need to be so meticulous. As long as you find a healer who is formally trained and has complete practical experience, whether it is using Reiki or other energy healing methods, it can actually help you relieve your backlog of emotions and improve your physical discomfort.